Isaac Augspurg: Children asking adults to protect our future

By Isaac Augspurg Special to The Sun

Wednesday

Mar 13, 2019 at 2:00 AM

I am 13-years-old and live on my family farm near Gainesville. I am one of the kids suing my government over climate change.

Growing up, I always knew climate change was a thing, but I never really understood how it would affect my life. Then, as I started to experience the ramifications of warmer weather and severe flooding, I realized that climate change is actually a big problem. I got really sad for a few weeks — and that’s when I started researching.

I asked my mom every single day, what can I do about this? So we researched it. We did what we could. We reduced our plastic waste and ate less meat. But I wanted to do something even more meaningful, and that’s when we came across the Our Children’s Trust case. We reached out to them and I became a plaintiff in the lawsuit.

I was sad and upset because I saw the changes around me. Where I live there are more severe parasite and pest problems. We have dairy goats, a big garden and other animals, and in 2016 it was very hot and humid. There was a big infection of parasites in our goats, but the medicine — all across the Southeast — was sold out.

I also noticed the increasing temperatures. It got up to 90s in the winter — in February — and that is really weird. The plants and animals come back and start to grow and then it gets just cold enough to kill some of them, which makes it hard to grow our garden.

The lawyers are telling me that the defendants want to have our case dismissed. It makes me feel disappointed, that our government cares so little about my future.

When I think about my future I’m excited for the possibilities but also scared. Sea level rise is going to cause millions of climate refugees from St. Augustine, Tampa and South Florida. They are going to come here, where I live, and it’s going to put a huge strain on the resources and will change the place where I have grown up.

I think Florida has a huge opportunity being the Sunshine State. But less than 3.1 percent of our energy comes from renewables. It is baffling to me that Florida is so behind in renewables and clean energy but we are going to be the most affected by climate change here in the United States.

If I had a chance to meet the defendants, I would ask them about their children and their families. I would say to them that everyone is being affected, and that their children are also living with the consequences of the climate crisis. I would explain to them that the consequences are going to get much worse as their children grow up. I would urge them to think about everyone’s future.

I would encourage them to work with us to help mitigate the climate crisis. We should work together. When we are fighting each other it can be difficult to get things resolved, but sometimes it has to come to that. However, it’s always better to work together.

We need to keep track of the state’s greenhouse gas emissions, and Florida is one of the only states that isn’t doing this. Information and knowledge is power. It’s important to figure out what we can do to change the system that powers our lives, and how we can most effectively transition to renewable energy in our state

We need to create a science-based climate recovery plan for our state now, and that is what we are asking for in our lawsuit. But my government is not thinking about solutions on how to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions and that makes me frustrated.

On March 15, I am going to speak at the Gainesville Climate Strike — one of many global youth climate strikes across the world, inspired by Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, another kid like me asking the adults to listen and to protect our future. I hope the defendants listen to us and give us a chance.

Isaac Augspurg is one of eight Floridians suing the state over climate change in a lawsuit filed by the nonprofit organization Our Children's Trust.

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